Parental Engagement

By Carl J. Petersen

Almost every major problem facing the LAUSD can be traced back to the size of the massive bureaucracy. With more than 640,000 students spread over 720 square miles in over 900 schools, the easiest way for the district to provide oversight of the system is by establishing a one-size-fits-all policy and mandating that everyone blindly follow it. This cookie-cutter technique may work fine in a factory where every widget must come off of the line exactly like the one before it and the economies of scale help drive down costs. However, the product of our public education system should not be identical bricks in the wall but individuals capable of critically thinking.

The Grinch in our LAUSD tale does not actually live north of Whoville, but works in the fortress located downtown at 333 So. Beaudry Ave. He is a faceless bureaucrat who does not actually work with children. Instead he sits in his cubicle crunching numbers and reading the latest education theories written by people who he deems qualified on the subject because they have a lot of money. According to his calculations, our students are not failing because of furlough days, poorly maintained buildings or the lack of funds for music, art and vocational training. The problem is Christmas!

“Then he got an idea! An awful idea!” He sent out a memo to schools far and wide: Christmas is cancelled and those found celebrating will be properly admonished. The fearful principal at Nobel Middle School quickly complied, sending word to teachers at the last minute that there was to be no celebrating before winter break. It did not matter if goodies had already been baked, supplies purchased or lesson plans completed. Policies make the oversized-district easier to manage and cannot be ignored.

Mishandling funds is certainly a serious allegation but not one that jeopardized student safety. Why was it necessary to remove Mr. Lutz from the classroom during the investigation? Wouldn’t it have been enough to suspend him from any after school activities until they found out that there was actual wrongdoing? Why was the board not asking these question as part of their oversight of the Superintendents office?

To those who think that tenure laws give teachers too much protection, I ask how they think that these cases can continue to happen. It seems to me that Mr. Lutz did not have enough protection.

Earlier this month, Tamar Galatzan spoke to the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council and repeated her familiar refrain of the schools in her district having to hold fundraisers to buy toilet paper. She says that the reason that they have to do this is that the Board increased the threshold that a school needs to meet in order to receive Title I funding. She also maintained that “a lot of that has to do with the fact that the LAUSD has not paid much attention to middle class, non-Title I schools.”

After writing about Calahan Street Elementary school last week, I received an email from Dr. Liane Jacob, who was the school’s principal until her retirement in September. From reading her correspondence, it is clear that she still has immense pride in the school that she led for 12 years and is deeply disturbed at the disruptions that the district’s interim replacement has caused. In her own words, “Calahan was a successful, warm, positive school in September. Now there is anger, bitterness, distrust, and change...Minor adjustments will occur with a change in leadership but the devastation that is currently ripping the school apart is tragic.”

In a district victimized by bullying from the top, it was refreshing to hear from someone who was free to speak her mind. Retirement has released her from control of the district so she is able to set the record straight from her new home in London. Her deep knowledge of how the school worked before her departure gives an indication of just how much the situation has deteriorated since the district has imposed their will on the school.

Last week, Tamar Galatzan told the Sherman Oaks Neighborhood Council that the LAUSD school board did not approve the controversial policy to automatically delete any email that was not specifically saved after one year. She maintained that it was “a staff decision. We did not approve it.” She also said that the “board doesn’t like” the idea.

While it is true that the Board has suspended the program while it holds hearings on the matter, this was only done after it voted 6-0 in September to spend $294,500 on a program that would make these deletions. When George McKenna, who abstained from the vote, asked why the one year term was chosen, the specific answer was because this was the term specified in the two-year old policy bulletin that Ms. Galatzan is now trying to distance herself from. Even if the Board did not approve the original policy, the vote for the computer program to make the deletions was a de-facto approval of the bulletin.

I have always used a basic set of rules to decide if I will vote for a bond measure. First I determine if the item being funded is important. Next, I ask if there is an alternative funding mechanism. Finally, I make sure that whatever is being funded will have benefits over the entire life of the bond.

The parents and teachers of Calahan Street Elementary school are angry, but that is not the emotion that affected me the most as I sat in on their PTA meeting last night. It was the genuine sadness. The meeting in the school library was standing room only and had the feeling of an intervention. Speaker after speaker expressed how much the school community meant to them and then went on to detail the many problems that they are facing this year. Unfortunately, there was not a happy ending as the subject of the intervention did not agree to take a trip to rehab. They only promised to try not to hurt the community when they went on their next binge.

Elkis Hermida has already been convicted of lewd acts against a child and is serving time in prison for having a six month sexual relationship with one of his students. The student was 14 at the time. The girl’s parents then sued the LAUSD claiming that the district was negligent in the matter.